MR. SNOW: Good morning. Just a couple of little pieces of business as we
start. First, a formal announcement: The President and Mrs. Bush will
welcome Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan to the White House on
June 29, 2006. The U.S.-Japan alliance is an alliance based on common
values and a common agenda. The President looks forward to continuing his
close consultations with Prime Minister Koizumi on the war on terror,
defending freedom and democracy, promoting regional security and prosperity
in Asia, and enhancing closer cooperation on global economic issues. In
other words, Koizumi is coming here on June 29th.

Q State visit, or official visit? How do you characterize it?

MR. SNOW: State visit? Official visit? Do we have a characterization?

MR. JONES: Well, he's not the head of state, so it would have to be an
official visit.

MR. SNOW: That's right, official visit.

Q Big dinner?

MR. SNOW: Terence, we will pass on all details as soon as they become
available to us.

Q He's angling for an invite.

Q Ain't gonna happen.

MR. SNOW: Ain't gonna happen.

Also, the press conference tomorrow night with the President and Prime
Minister Blair will be at 7:30 p.m. in the East Room. All right? So we --
say what?

Q -- we look forward to it -- (laughter.)

MR. SNOW: I'm sorry, I'm going to be moving some of these tape recorders
so I can put my coffee here. I will apologize in advance.

Q Will that be a real press conference, or is it two questions per side?

MR. SNOW: No, it's a "real" press conference. It's open press; they'll be
taking questions. It's not a two-and-two or anything like that. So if you
are in attendance and you have a good question, chances are you'll get
called on.

Just a second. A couple of other items, Helen. You know I knew I would
leave something -- can somebody bring me the DPC stuff, please? We do have
a personnel announcement to make, and I left that on my desk. So I will
vamp here for a second.

Also, there is going to be today a Cabinet-level hurricane exercise, so if
you see members of the Cabinet coming in here, it is because they are going
to be gathering in the Executive Office Building to participate in what is
called a table-top exercise on hurricane preparedness, to focus on the
federal government's readiness and response to a catastrophic disaster.
These exercises are created at the direction of the President and intended
to simulate the Cabinet's role responsibility and authority in responding
to a catastrophic disaster. It's the third such exercise in the last six
months. The first, December 10, 2005, was on pandemic influenza; the
second on March 18, 2005, on smallpox.

Today's mock scenario, a category five hurricane that will have a landfall
on the greater New Orleans metropolitan area. Secretary Chertoff had a
press conference on this yesterday. There will be a readout -- at least
we're going to try to give you information afterward about how it went.
This is going to go from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Q Will the President be involved at all?

MR. SNOW: I don't -- no, I don't believe -- the President, as a matter of
fact, is traveling. He will be doing an event --

Q Telephones and everything --

MR. SNOW: Well, yes, but the answer is, no. The Cabinet members will be
talking about their roles.

The President is doing an energy event today in Pennsylvania. He'll be
making remarks about energy policy. He'll be focusing on nuclear power
because he will be getting a tour of the Limerick Generating Station.

And while they continue to look, let me just make an announcement, that
Karl Zinsmeister will be the head of the Domestic Policy Council. Karl has
a very long and storied career in the journalism business, as well as
others. His first job -- thank you, do you have the big, old, fat -- he's
got a 48-page resume --

Q Can you spell his name?

MR. SNOW: Yes. Z-i-n-s-m-e-i-s-t-e-r. He is presently the
editor-in-chief of The American Enterprise Magazine. He's actually been
editing it from his home in New York state, where he's been raising his
children. Karl is a J.B. Fuqua Fellow at The American Enterprise
Institute. He has been editor-in-chief of The American Enterprise, I
believe, since 1994.

Q "Karl" with a "k"?

MR. SNOW: With a "k." I will make no further comment.

But in any event, he started working on the staff of Senator Daniel Patrick
Moynihan some time ago. His other accomplishments include having written
two books on the war in Iraq. He's been embedded on two different
occasions. He's been a film producer, he's been a weekly commentator on
Radio America, on the board of advisors of the Department of Education's
National Fund for the Improvement and Reform of Schools and Teaching; he's
been a research director for the working seminar on Family and American
Welfare Policy. As I said before, he was an LA to Senator Moynihan, also
received a bachelor's degree from Yale University. Somebody who has been
toiling in the vineyards for quite a while, and we're --

Q What will his role be, exactly, Tony?

MR. SNOW: He's going to head the Domestic Policy Council.

Q So he's the President's chief Domestic Policy Advisor?

MR. SNOW: That would be correct -- I suppose if that's how we describe it,
yes. And --

Q Did he take the place of Claude Allen?

MR. SNOW: That is correct, that's Claude Allen's --

Q Does he have basically the same responsibilities? Has the job been
expanded or contracted?

MR. SNOW: That I do not know. I have not asked about specific
responsibilities. I know Karl from my previous life, and I think he's a
terrific hire.

Also, just in economic news today, durable goods orders -- that is a highly
volatile order, but it was down 4.8 percent in April. Meanwhile the
shipment of core capital goods is up .9 percent. Both continue their
upward trends, generally speaking. Do not expect this as an inflection
point, but I don't want to go too far on making economic comments, but the
general trends continue to be up on both of those economic indicators.

And with that, we'll start taking questions. Terry.

Q The President talked yesterday about making a new assessment about the
needs necessary for the Iraqis. Will you tell us about this new
assessment, how this will work, how long will it take?

MR. SNOW: Yes, but it's -- part of the conversation -- I forgot to mention
this -- with Prime Minister Blair will be discussing developments in Iraq.
As you know, the Prime Minister was there last weekend. The President has
had some conversations with Prime Minister Maliki, and obviously, Prime
Minister Blair did, as well. And I think what they see here is that with a
new Iraqi government, one that is an entirely Iraqi government as a result
of elections, it's changed. This really does mark a new era. Prime
Minister Maliki is somebody who is a very aggressive, take-charge kind of
guy. And the United States, I think, sees an opportunity there to work
with him on figuring out how to train up Iraqi forces as rapidly as
possible, but effectively as possible, to ensure security, to work on
building economic infrastructure, to work on putting in place all the
preconditions for a successful, stable democracy that will be an ally in
the war on terror.

So when you're talking about this, they really just see this is a restart.
And now that you've got somebody who has -- who is a head of state with
whom you can work, they are looking forward to figuring out exactly what's
possible. At this point, everybody's taking the measure of the new
government. As you know, a couple portfolios remain open. But on the
other hand, I think that's probably as accurate a readout as I can give you
--

Q With the restart, is it fair to say that this moves us closer toward
troop withdrawals?

MR. SNOW: Again, it's impossible to say. The troop withdrawals, as I've
said from this podium the last couple of days, are all going to be based on
the conditions on the ground. One thing that we are going to continue to
do, as rapidly as we possibly can -- and General Casey, obviously, being
much more authoritative on this subject than I -- we're going to continue
our efforts to try to make sure that we can enhance the security within
Iraq in all places and have Iraqi forces primarily responsible. What is
going to happen, I think it's very safe to say, is that increasingly
American, British and other coalition forces are going to move into support
roles as Iraqi forces themselves move into lead roles.

Kelly.

Q Is there a view from Blair or Maliki or in these discussions that
there's a need to bolster the credibility of the new government by
repositioning or pulling back these coalition forces?

MR. SNOW: I don't know that you talk about bolstering the credibility of a
brand new government. The government is trying to establish itself. I
don't think that -- we're not going to engage -- there is no attempt to
engage in cosmetic changes when it comes to security. What you want to do
is, again, to respond to the real conditions on the ground and to try to
make serious efforts so that Iraqi forces are going to be capable of
providing security in a professional way that is consistent with the rights
of the Iraqi citizens and also the desire to have security.

Helen.

Q The President apparently has gotten several messages, underground,
back-channel and so forth, through intermediaries for direct talks with
Iran. Surely he is not going to blow a -- speaking of opportunities with
Iraq, this is an opportunity to talk directly to Iran. And why doesn't the
President do it? And don't give me the -- I'm sure the three other allies
and so forth would be very happy if we talked directly to Iran.

MR. SNOW: Well, if you don't wish me to answer the question, then I'll
just move to the next questioner.

Q I want you to answer after I've told you what my premise is.
(Laughter.)

MR. SNOW: This from Secretary of State Helen Thomas. The position has
always been clear. We are not going to divide --

Q If elected I will serve. (Laughter.)

MR. SNOW: Boy, that's going out everywhere today. (Laughter. The position
has always been the same, which is if Iraq, in fact, proceeds with -- we
think that Iraq -- Iraq -- Iran -- thank you very much -- needs to be very
serious about suspending all enrichment and reprocessing of uranium. They
have to agree to do it. They have to do it in a verifiable and credible
manner and a permanent manner. When that happens, all right, then there
may be some opportunities. But the first precondition right now -- and
we've been working with our allies on this -- is to make sure that Iran
does nothing in terms of advancing its ability to build nuclear weapons.

Now, we also are not going to divide up the coalition by trying to engage
in side conversations with Iran. We have said that we will work with the
P5; we have said that we will work with the EU3. And that is not going to
change.

Anything -- Iran -- what Iran is trying to do, I think it's safe to say, is
-- there are a couple things going on. Number one, the Iranians clearly
are feeling some pressure here. This is the sort of thing that would not
have happened if Iranians were not feeling pressure both from the
international community and economically. I think it's also safe to say
that we still believe that Iran has to take that fundamental step when it
comes to enriching or reprocessing uranium. They've got to suspend all
activities. Until they do that, there's going to be no change in the
administration's posture and the President's posture when it comes to
one-on-one negotiations. We will continue to use appropriate international
forums and work with, and through, our allies when it comes to dealing with
the government in Iran.

Q Why don't we sound out whether these are true opportunities, or not?

MR. SNOW: Well, again, Iran -- I mentioned before --

Q -- lay down laws for everybody else. This is true negotiation.

MR. SNOW: This is more an argument than a question, Helen, and I'm not
going the engage in arguments about what constitutes or doesn't --

Q No, it isn't. It isn't. I'm asking you, why don't we take advantage
of these feelers?

MR. SNOW: You are assuming -- I am not going to tell you each and every
thing this government is doing diplomatically when it comes to Iran. I'm
not telling you that there are --

Q -- you're more amenable to them?

MR. SNOW: I am telling you that nothing happens, the position has not
changed. Iran has an obligation -- what Iran is trying to do is to
negotiate through the press right now.

Q -- no --

MR. SNOW: Sure, it is. And you're doing an able job of it, Helen. So
what's going on here is that Iran, in responding to pressure, is trying to
change the subject. And we're not going to let them change the subject.
The subject --

Q It isn't changing the subject --

MR. SNOW: Of course, it is.

Q -- it wants direct talks with the United States.

MR. SNOW: But it already knows what the preconditions are for American
talks.

Q Are they, in fact, putting out these feelers that Helen is talking
about?

MR. SNOW: I cannot advance you beyond anything that's been in the press.
The answer is, Steve, I don't know. I have not been briefed on what they
have or have not been doing. It's pretty clear that they have been talking
with our allies, and we've obviously had the letter from President
Ahmadinejad. So to that extent, I suppose you could catagorize it as a
feeler. I don't know about -- I can't give you any insight.

Q When you say there may be some opportunities if they take some steps,
what are you talking about?

MR. SNOW: I'm going no further. I think what we've always said is that
there is simply -- the first precondition of Iran is renounce the
enrichment and reprocessing of uranium. Just stop. Stop doing that -- of
nuclear materials. What Iran is now trying to do, as I said, in a response
to pressure -- I think it's very clear the pressure has begun to pay off --
that they want to change the subject. And we're not going to let them.

Q It's the same subject. You are -- you're right, they are responding
to pressure. They're probably really fearful --

MR. SNOW: You know what -- if and when they meet their obligations before
the international community of suspending the production or enrichment or
reprocessing of uranium, we'll --

Q So you're laying down the law to them, really, that they have to do
that, or there's no negotiation? No running room.

MR. SNOW: -- and we'll see.

Next. Who do we have?

Q Jim Nicholson -- Patrick Leahy says he should be taken to the
woodshed, at the very least, over what's happened at the VA, not just the
identity theft, but the multimillion dollar shortfall in funding, et
cetera. Any reaction to that?

MR. SNOW: We appreciate his personnel advice, and let's just see where all
this leads. Secretary Nicholson is going to be producing a statement at
some point today about what has happened with the theft that has made so
much news, but I think I'm going to refer all comments to the Department of
Veterans Affairs because they're the ones who are going to be answering
these --

Q What about the traditional "does the President retain full confidence
in" --

MR. SNOW: As I said, I'm not -- I'm referring all questions back to VA.

Q Back to Iran. You talk about there being a single, in effect, it
sounds like, a single precondition. But there are so many other subjects
that are of extreme importance not only to Iran, but the United States --
all of those. Has there been any thought to somehow increasing the
dialogue on many of those subjects?

MR. SNOW: It's interesting because for all the complaints about American
unilateralism, here we are -- we're working through international forums;
we're working through multiple international forums; we're working through
the United Nations; we're working through the EU. It's not as if the
Iranians don't have a place to express themselves. At this point we do not
have direct diplomatic ties, so we are trying to the very best of our
ability to go ahead and use the appropriate forums. So I don't know -- for
critics who say, why don't you reach out, I think the United States is
trying to engage in the proper and appropriate forums as fully as we
possibly can.

Q But turning around your point, might it not be argued by some that the
United States has suddenly discovered something that it has not as much
believed in in the past, that this might be an occasion --

MR. SNOW: No, as a matter of fact, the United States has worked through
international forums throughout. It's a good debating point, you know.
But these --

Q I'm not debating you, but certainly --

MR. SNOW: -- the "some might say" question doesn't tell me who the "some"
are and what they might say.

Q I don't think that that's how it would be described. But my point is,
is what if that point is made? What is your response to the fact that the
United States has often decided to go it alone, to use an expression, or to
operate unilaterally?

MR. SNOW: I disagree with the premise.

Q Can I go back to Iraq and Tony Blair? I know you've been asked this
before, but what is the latest way you're thinking about whether he's going
to talk about withdrawing British troops?

MR. SNOW: I think I'll have to leave that to the President and the Prime
Minister when they talk to you tomorrow.

Q On the last -- one of the gaggles this week, you sort of indicated
that was where they were going -- that was where this was going.

MR. SNOW: No, I -- no, I was talking about in the dim and distant future
-- I was simply repeating what we've said, which is when they stand up, we
stand down. Eventually, and I don't know what the date is, I don't think
anybody in this room or this gaggle or this world will know what the
precise date is -- at some point, it's going to be clear that the Iraqis
are capable of handling those security responsibilities, and when that day
has come, obviously, there will be no need for U.S. or coalition troops.

Q What has Maliki said to the administration about his desire to have
troops there? In other words, there's now a unity government, a sovereign
government, with foreign troops. Has he said, please stay, I'd like you
out by how long? What's the tenor of the discussion?

MR. SNOW: I'll have to put that on my bupkis list, because I really don't
know, in terms of any direct discussions. I don't have a readout on
conversations. Keep in mind, this government took form last Saturday, so I
do not know if there have been any direct representations on the part of
the Prime Minister.

Q You're describing a new -- a reset button, sort of a new chapter here.

MR. SNOW: Right.

Q Does that also include a new chapter in terms of what you're hearing
from --

MR. SNOW: As I said, I can't give you -- Jim, I just don't have a readout.
If I can give you a readout, I'll try to provide it.

Q You said earlier that the U.S. sees an opportunity to quickly build up
an economic infrastructure as part of the preconditions for success.

MR. SNOW: I didn't say "quickly." I said you need to help build it.

Q Okay. In either case, is there some new ask on the table from the new
government, from Maliki?

MR. SNOW: Again, let me just caution any attempts to try to extract
answers about what the Prime Minister has said directly to the President.
I don't have anything for you. I'll try to get information, but I'm simply
not going to represent conversations to which I have not been privy and
don't have information about.

Q Tony, do you know if Prime Minister Blair is coming here with a plan
for withdrawing troops --

MR. SNOW: No, I don't believe -- I think it's premature to be talking
about planned withdrawals. I think the President and the Prime Minister
really are trying to look forward to what I've described before as a new
era. You have an energetic Prime Minister who has said that he wants Iraqi
troops to be in the forefront as quickly as possible. But I don't -- any
time you try to make timetables about this, you're hostage to changing
events. So, no, I don't -- I do not believe that you're going to hear the
President or the Prime Minister say we're going to be out in one year, two
years, four years. I don't think you're going to get any kind of specific
prediction of troop withdrawals. I think you're going to get a restatement
of the general principles under which coalition troops stay or go.

Q Tony, a two-part. The first has to do with a Washington Times, page
one headline, "Probe Finds Air Marshals at Risk, Dress Code Compromises
Anonymity." And my question, why does the President allow this dress code
risk of air marshals' lives?

MR. SNOW: I'm not aware that the President has directly addressed dress
codes. We will have to refer this back to the air marshals --

Q That's part of the administration --

MR. SNOW: Again, I would refer you to the people who are primarily
responsible for such things, and ask them.

Q In Atlanta, during a press conference, Rudy Giuliani said, "I believe
that marriage should be between a man and a woman, that it should remain
that way -- it should remain that way inviolable." Is the President
grateful that this defense of traditional marriage comes from a fellow
Republican and presidential contender from New York, of all places?

MR. SNOW: First, is that the second part of the air marshals question?
(Laughter.)

Q Two-part means the two parts have equal --

MR. SNOW: Okay, I just wanted to be clear. I thought they might be
vaguely related to one another. (Laughter.)

The President has been clear, he believes marriage is between a man and a
woman.

Q This might go on your bupkis list, but does the fact that there is now
a unity government change Maliki's ability to say -- to tell us, or ask us
to leave?

MR. SNOW: We've been very clear, when the Iraqi government -- we serve
there at the pleasure of the Iraqi government. You know, if he says he
doesn't need us, we're not going to stick around.

Q Tony, just again trying to clarify -- does the President believe that
the immigration bill, insofar as it refers to temporary workers, should
require that those temporary workers go home at the end of their temporary
work --

MR. SNOW: I think there's technical language -- "go home," there may be
border stations where you technically are on foreign soil. Deborah, let me
-- because this is a technical question that I think requires a technical
answer, we'll put it on the bupkis list, come back in a few minutes and
I'll get you your precise answer. Because the general answer is, at this
point, we are trying to -- we are encouraging the Senate to complete a
comprehensive bill. When you have a comprehensive bill, then you have a
basis of discussion and negotiation before the House and Senate. There are
numerous highly complex issues that are involved in trying to deal with
immigration, which is, as you know, a whole complex of issues and not
simply one. And we'll move forward at that point.

Whether -- I think it's safe to say the President has not changed his
position since the speech. That's reiterating what I said yesterday.

Q Tony, considering the opportunity that tomorrow night's time slot
offers the President, 7:30 p.m. and beyond, are you saying that we're
really not to expect an announcement, per se -- but rather a forum for
underscoring this restart that you're talking about?

MR. SNOW: Yes, exactly.

Q I have a couple questions. Can you give more of a time line on when
the Prime Minister arrives? And will they have a meeting and a working
dinner before the press conference?

MR. SNOW: What is the time line? I don't have the precise time line.
I'll try to get you a precise one. There will be a dinner, but I think the
dinner may be after the press conference rather than before. I'm just --
you know what, I don't have the schedule, so we'll try to find the
schedule.

Q My second question is, can you say anything about what Prime Minister
Olmert and President Bush discussed last night in the residence?

MR. SNOW: No. That was just the two of them. And it was a continuation
of, obviously, the conversation they had in the Oval Office. But I think
neither one was giving big readouts at dinner and I think that they're
going to let that remain confidential between the two of them.

It is safe to say that they had very frank -- and using "diplomatese," but
frank -- they had good conversations about how Israel and the Palestinians
may proceed toward peace in the region. They talked about the role of Iraq
in the region. They talked about a number of matters of mutual concern.
And the one thing you'll hear from anybody who is in the room when they
were there with others present is that it really was a very productive
meeting. The two of them clearly enjoyed it, and they relished the sort of
back-and-forth.

Q To follow up on that, did they discuss Palestinian aid efforts?

MR. SNOW: To the extent -- yes. Israel, for instance, I believe -- you're
going to have to look it up, but the Prime Minister mentioned the precise
amount of direct aid, for instance, they're providing for medicines and
physicians in Gaza right now. The President and the Prime Minister want to
make it clear that they're distinguishing between Hamas and the -- Hamas'
running the Palestinian Authority government and the Palestinian people, in
particular. The President is committed to providing humanitarian aid. We
want to make sure -- you want to help children who need food. You want to
help women who are pregnant. You want to make sure that the schools are
operating. You want to make sure the basic services continue, and the
United States and Israel are both playing roles in that.

Q Can I follow up, too? The President seemed to go pretty far down the
road in his qualified endorsement of the realignment plan. The message
seemed to be, okay, we'll try these negotiations; when that fails, we'll do
that.

MR. SNOW: Well, no, again, he made it clear that the clear preference here
is to have a two-state solution that involves a negotiated settlement among
two parties. Now, they also made it clear that right now President Abbas
is the one guy who seems to have met the preconditions for doing the
talking: recognizing Israel's right to exist, renouncing the use of
terror, and also acknowledging previous agreements between the two parties.
And so that is sort of the starting point here. But I don't think that
there -- this is something that has to be tried, it has to be tried
exhaustively, and one hopes it will succeed.

Q But if you want to send that message, that's what he could have said,
instead of going on and talking about, but you got another great idea in
the wings here.

MR. SNOW: That's because that idea had been floated extensively. If he
hadn't talked about it, everybody would be talking about, why didn't you
mention it. So I can just tell you that as a matter of policy, you want to
try to the best of your ability to make sure that there is a two-party
solution.

Q Did the British express any concern that this will be at 12:30 a.m. in
the morning for them? Is that right? Plus five?

MR. SNOW: Not that I'm aware of. Please forgive me while I try to be a
full service gaggler.

Q What was he thinking about, for god's sake, scheduling something at
7:30 p.m. in the evening? It's not even prime time.

MR. SNOW: Well, you know what, I have an answer for that and I'm not going
to give it.

Q What is the answer?

Q Sweeps week.

MR. SNOW: No, no, sweeps are over. Sweeps are over on Thursday. So this
is not a sweeps consideration.

Q Well, how about for Blair?

Q About those alleged first cases of possible human-to-human bird flu --

MR. SNOW: I'll tell you what. I often refer -- if you want to get "state
of mind" things on the Prime Minister, I encourage you to call his office.

Q Bird flu in Indonesia, the alleged first cases of human-to-human --
possibly human-to-human contact -- what kind of involvement has the White
House had or contact --

MR. SNOW: Well, at this point -- hang on, I've kind of flipped to the --
essentially, everybody is monitoring events. The CDC is working with the
WHO. They're on site in Indonesia. The Indonesians have been
collaborating very openly. They've been very helpful on this.

They haven't ruled out human-to-human contact, as far as we understand
this. This is a situation where a lot of people were clustered close
together. But at this point, they're still trying to investigate the
possibilities it's human-to-human contact, whether this is the sort of
contact that might lead to a pandemic and that kind of thing.

But all I can say is they're studying -- there's just a couple of things --
it was a family cluster in Indonesia, eight family members, seven of them
died. There is no evidence of transmission outside of that cluster --
again, people who had lived in closed proximity had been coughing and
sneezing. Cannot rule out human-to-human, but it does not appear, at least
in the opinion of those who have been studying it, to be either efficient
or sustained, in terms of transmission. Genetic analysis so far has shown
no obvious significant mutations in the virus. So that's -- that's what we
do know at this point.

Q Tony, at one point, Ambassador Khalilzad was authorized to talk to the
Iranians, and I was under the impression that was pending the formation of
an Iraqi government. Are those talks now going to happen?

Q Tony, why was there only four questions allowed in the press
conference with the Prime Minister of Israel and now there's going to be a
whole hour -- I presume an hour for the Prime Minister of Britain?

MR. SNOW: Because we wanted to make you happy, Lester.

Q You wanted to make me happy.

MR. SNOW: No, look, it's -- you've been through this many times with the
two-on-twos. That has been a standard forum. In this case, we're going to
do a full press conference. There's no why or where for it.

Q Is Bob Zoellick leaving the State Department?

MR. SNOW: I don't know. You'll have to ask Bob.

Q I want to take you back to the Harriet Miers nomination -- sorry. The
Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct has admonished Supreme Court Justice
Nathan Hecht for speaking out on her behalf.

MR. SNOW: You're so far off my brief on this, I just don't even have a --

Q Are you concerned that people who speak up for your nominees are
getting slapped down --

MR. SNOW: No, I just -- I literally don't have an answer. I will go take
a look, but I have absolutely no comment, because I -- I won't blow smoke.

All right. Thank you.

END 11:23 A.M. EDT

* Last year, Secretary Rice authorized Ambassador Khalilzad to hold talks
with Iran about our concerns regarding the security situation in Iraq and
how they might play a more constructive role. Similarly, he had this
mandate as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, and exercised that mandate
during his tenure in Kabul. The current Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ron
Neumann, has also met with his Iranian counterpart to discuss issues
related to Afghanistan. The most recent discussions concerning Afghanistan
have centered on counternarcotics issues in Afghanistan; if it makes sense
to have discussions in Baghdad about Iraq, we will do so. As Secretary
Rice said on Sunday, "We will assess the situation and see when such talks
might be useful."